


Learning Curve

by Hadi42



Series: Fragments of Memory [2]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28166394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hadi42/pseuds/Hadi42
Summary: Inuyasha has two things he's good at; fighting, and protecting. But raising a child requires more than brute force and shielding them from physical harm, and now that Inuyasha's own daughter is old enough to need more from him than a simple protector, he can't help but feel frustrated that he knows so little about what it really means to be a father.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome & Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime), Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, InuYasha (InuYasha) & Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime)
Series: Fragments of Memory [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2094390
Comments: 12
Kudos: 65





	Learning Curve

"Inuyasha..."

At his name, Inuyasha turned his attention away from the tiny hands and sharp teeth that were currently intent on mauling his ears and looked up to see his wife giving him an exasperated sort of look.

"What?" he asked, pulling his two-year old daughter off his head and into his lap, keeping her firmly in place as she fought to escape.

"You're doing it again," Kagome said, putting down the _haori_ she'd been mending. Something had torn it up with suspiciously sharp looking claws.

"Am not," he said defensively as Moroha growled her displeasure, her brown eyes glaring up at her father, and reached her arms up toward his face.

"Ear!" she demanded. "Yaji's ears! Moro want!"

"No, you're chewing 'em all up," he told her.

"Moro want!!"

"Moroha," Kagome scolded ominously, and the girl suddenly tensed up in instinctual fear.

"See, even mom says so."

Moroha put down her hands and seemed to sink into his grasp for a moment, dejected.

"Moro want," she said again, but this time her imperious tone was gone, replaced by a tiny, pathetic whine.

 _Uh oh,_ Inuyasha thought, and sure enough, her pretty features, so like Kagome's, screwed up into a wail as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Yaji!!" she cried, and Inuyasha's resolve melted away.

"Okay, okay!" he said, desperate to stop the heart-wrenching sound. "Stop cryin', stop! _Oyaji_ will let you play with his ears, just stop cryin'!"

The effect was immediate. Moroha instantly ceased her tantrum, eyes wide and adoring, smile wide and fangs peeking over the curve of her lips. She held her arms up again expectantly and Inuyasha helped her scramble from his shoulder onto his back, where she happily resumed her attack on his poor ears.

Wincing, he made a point to avoid Kagome's mildly amused look.

"You want to run that by me again?" she said coolly, pulling a stitch.

"... Shut up," he growled.

Kagome chuckled, shaking the _haori_ out on her lap.

"You're spoiling her," she admonished, deftly tugging the needle through a crease. "You need to learn how to say no."

"I say no, all the- OW!"

Moroha laughed gleefully.

"There's a difference between telling her 'no, you can't do that' and actually not letting her do it. All you're teaching her is that you don't mean it when you ask her to stop," Kagome explained. Without so much as looking up from her work, she addressed Moroha directly. "Moroha, no biting. You're hurting Papa."

Like magic, Moroha immediately released Inuyasha's ear from between her teeth and made a sad sound of disappointment.

"Kay, kaa-cha."

"See?"

Inuyasha scowled.

"She doesn't listen to me like that!" he complained as Moroha draped herself over his face, chubby hands covering his eyes.

"Yaji!" she giggled, clearly having the time of her life. Inuyasha gently brushed her aside.

"Quit it, kid. You're annoying."

Moroha took absolutely no notice at all. Kagome's mouth twitched into a small grin. "She would take you more seriously if you just treated her the way you treat the other kids in the village. Or if you stopped carrying her around everywhere."

"If I didn't do that she'd be running off every chance she got," he argued, crossing his arms irritably. "She's just like you, she can't stay still."

"Like _me?!"_ Kagome said indignantly. " _I_ can't stay still?!"

"Obviou- HEY!" he spluttered as the half-fixed _haori_ was thrown into his face.

"Mend your own damned clothes," Kagome snapped, then without warning she got to her feet and tugged Moroha away.

"Noooo! Moro want Yaji!!"

"No, it's bed time and your face is covered in dirt," Kagome said firmly. For half a second it looked like the little girl was about to start crying again, but spoiled though she was, Moroha was very smart, and she knew better than to have a fit when her mother's face looked like that. Pouting slightly, she let Kagome pick her up and hid her face in the crook of her neck. "At least set the futons out before I get back," said Kagome, her tone slightly menacing as she grabbed a cloth and swept the reed curtain aside, leaving Inuyasha all alone in the house with only the crackling of the flames in the hearth for company.

"What the hell?!" he called angrily. "I didn't even do anything!"

When no one replied, he grumpily got to his feet and began to rearrange the bedding, muttering curses under his breath the whole time.

* * *

Fatherhood was a strange concept to Inuyasha.

He had never known his own father, who had died around the time Inuyasha was born. Everything he knew about the Great Dog General was secondhand, stories told by his mother, or bits of information pried from Myoga or Sesshomaru. For a long time, Inuyasha had thought that he didn't care about his father; what was there to care about, when he didn't even know what his father looked like? He was a stranger, nothing more. He had never been carried or hugged, never even been patted affectionately on the head by the man who had given him half of who he was.

But Inuyasha _did_ care, even if he hated admitting it. His father's absence was an open wound, a scar that ached with the longing of something important that had been torn from his life before he even had a chance to know it. There had been no one to teach him about his demonic aura, or his abilities. No one to teach him about fighting or that gentleness was as much a source of strength as force. He had survived out of pure instinct and luck. And he had grown and matured thanks to Kagome and his friends, as well as through his own mistakes. Still, he couldn't help wondering: would he have been a better person, made less blunders, if he'd had a proper father around to show him the way?

Inuyasha didn't know. He'd never even really considered becoming a father himself, in truth. When he married Kagome, he simply knew that they were meant to be together, and that they would live together for the rest of their lives. There was no planning, no intention behind Moroha's birth. It had come as much of a surprise to Kagome as it had to him. He'd been terrified when she started feeling sick and her scent began to change, and he grew even more worried as the pregnancy progressed. Women did not always survive giving birth in the Feudal Era, and that was without all the trouble and danger Kagome drew to herself like some strange, priestess-shaped magnet. (Kagome's brother Sota had shown him a magnet once, and tried to explain how it worked, but as far as Inuyasha was concerned, the little chunk of black metal was deeply cursed). A more stressful seven months Inuyasha never hoped to live again; the first two had been a blessing, ignorance keeping fear at bay.

In all that time, he barely had time to think about what it would mean to have a kid. Kagome's safety and health were first, no matter that worrying about her every minute of every day had made him shed an unfortunate amount of hair, or that he barely slept for weeks at a time. He felt a little better around the fifth month, when he realized the baby had been hiding a demonic aura behind a shield of pure spiritual power. Part-demons were always harder to kill than humans, and having even a sliver of Kagome's spiritual energy was a good, if unheard of, sign. He'd been able to concentrate on keeping Kagome out of trouble, reassured by the thought that the child, at least, wasn't going to get hurt as easily as most.

When the baby (finally) arrived after a hellishly long labor in which Kagome nearly tore his fingers off, Lady Kaede handed the infant over to her father, an impossibly small creature bundled in cloth and still bloodied. Inuyasha had about five seconds to marvel and take in the moment, to finally think about the fact that this was his _daughter,_ a child of his own flesh and blood, five seconds to realize both mother and child had made it through the ordeal safely, before the horrific, ear-shattering wailing began in earnest and panic settled in.

"How do I make her _stop?!"_ he'd cried helplessly, unsure what to do with the screaming bundle in his arms. Kaede had laughed at his panic, and Kagome managed a mild look of amusement as she tiredly touched the miniature hand waving furiously at her.

"Welcome to the world, Moroha," she'd said, voice cracked with exhaustion as the hand curled up around her mother's finger. "Sorry," she said, looking up at Inuyasha through half-closed eyes. "I just... _really_ need a nap."

" _Kagome, you can't just leave me like this!"_ he'd argued, but his wife heard none of it, and slept for nearly two days while he desperately tried to keep the world from falling apart in her admittedly well-deserved absence.

The next two years didn't leave much room for introspection. Moroha was a tyrant with a never-ending list of needs and wants, and Inuyasha and Kagome were both run ragged with tiredness. Sleep was rare, tempers were short, and conversations dwindled down to knowing glances and sleepy moments of (hopefully) quiet happiness. There was nothing special about caring for Moroha at this point in her life; as long as she was fed, cleaned, changed, and lulled to sleep, it didn't matter which parent did what. It was only later, when she began to crawl and then stumble around, when the first intelligible words came to her mouth ("Aji!" to Kagome's horror. "I told you not to call yourself _Oyaji,_ she'll never call you Papa now!") and she began to think and talk and play that Inuyasha finally had to force himself to admit that yes, he was a _father_ , and that his daughter would now look to him and know him for the role. Which also meant that Moroha would now begin to _learn_ from him.

Now that was a terrifying prospect.

* * *

He felt more tired than usual the next morning as the first sounds of daybreak pulled him from his restless sleep. Yawning, Inuyasha blinked sleepily as he propped himself up on one arm and began visual confirmation of his daily morning inventory.

One: There was Kagome, huddled under the blankets, black hair splayed around her shoulders. She looked peaceful, but he nevertheless took care to check for the sound of her breath or any changes in her scent that might indicate she was hurt.

 _Normal,_ he thought, moving on.

Two: Moroha in the space between them, miniature fists raised above her head, the covers kicked off at some point in the middle of the night. Like her mother, she was fast asleep and showed no signs of injury. Inuyasha pulled the covers back over her as quietly as he could to avoid waking her and pressed a kiss to her soft hair.

Once he was satisfied with that, he turned his attention to the sounds, smells, and auras in the village outside. Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, he sat up and stretched, letting his instincts fade into the background. 

_Time to get up._

Neither Kagome nor Moroha stirred as he changed and washed his face, and by the time he grabbed Tessaiga and stepped outside, the first few rays of the sun were coming up over the mountains. No one else seemed to be up just yet, and the air was still cold with moisture. It would probably be a little while until the workers went out into the fields.

 _Perfect,_ he nodded to himself. Though he couldn't sense anyone, he glanced suspiciously around him for a moment, then set off at a brisk pace.

He found his target exactly where he expected to. He crouched into the shadows outside the door, listening intently. Slowly, so slowly it was making him nervous, he poked Tessaiga's sheathe in the space between the reed curtain and the doorway until he could get inside.

The rest was easy. He picked out Miroku's futon by pure scent, crept up to where he slept, and swiftly clamped a hand over the priest's mouth.

"HH!"

 _"Shh!"_ Inuyasha hissed as Miroku instinctively clawed at him. "It's me."

Miroku blinked in the darkness and Inuyasha slowly removed his hand.

"The hell-" he breathed angrily. Inuyasha shushed him again and beckoned toward the door.

It was a few minutes before Miroku followed him, dressed only in a _kosode_ with staff in hand and eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Someone had better be dying," he warned in a low voice as Inuyasha led him toward the edge of the forest and away from the house.

"No, but it's important." Inuyasha said, crossing his arms. Miroku frowned, glancing around at the village below them.

"I'm not sensing anything that shouldn't be here. Is it a scent?"

"We're not being attacked," Inuyasha said flatly. "I just don't want Sango to see us,"

"Hah?!"

"She'll tell Kagome," he muttered. Miroku gave him a look of utter disbelief.

"Hold on, are you telling me you broke into my house, nearly suffocated me in my sleep, and dragged me out here before the sun's even out because, once _again_ , you and Lady Kagome are fighting?!"

"No! ... Well, we are kinda arguing a bit I guess... but that's not why I'm here!" he insisted gruffly.

Miroku sighed irritably, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Explain."

Inuyasha fidgeted uncomfortably. "Look, I'm only askin' cause Kagome won't tell me. You have a whole bunch of kids, and they all listen to you, right?"

"For the most part," Miroku said. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Training," Inuyasha said seriously.

"Training?"

"Yeah. I gotta train, so I can be like you and Kagome."

"Inuyasha, I have no earthly clue what you're going on about."

"Keh! Training! So I can learn to be a parent!"

Miroku looked like he had been hit over the head with a club.

"What the hell are you _talking_ about?! You _are_ a parent! You've _been_ a parent for a while now!"

Inuyasha huffed, looking away petulantly.

"Well yeah, but I'm... not very good at it," he mumbled, clearly embarrassed. Miroku said nothing for a moment.

"Hold on, I need a second so I don't exorcise you out of existence," he finally said, massaging his temples vigorously. He took several deep breaths, eyes twitching with anger. "Start from the beginning. What is this all about?"

Inuyasha's ears twitched, a mix of irritation and shame stirring in his chest.

"You know, don't ya? That I didn't know my old man growin' up."

Miroku's expression softened just the slightest bit. "Yes, I know."

"I had a mother, so I know what that's like. But a father? All I know about my old man is that I never met him. And that he gave me Tessaiga. I dunno what a father is supposed to do or say, especially not a demon one. It was one thing when Moroha was a baby," he said, stopping Miroku before he could interrupt. "Kagome and the others taught me how to feed her, how to change her, how to calm her down. That was fine, anyone can do that. But now I've got a little... person to watch out for. She can talk and learn and think. And she's a _real_ pain in the ass. I know I'm supposed to be teachin' her things, but I don't have a clue what the hell those things are s'posed to be."

He kicked at a fallen branch halfheartedly, hating that he felt so vulnerable about something so stupid. Miroku regarded him for a minute thoughtfully.

"I don't think anyone _really_ knows how to be a father, Inuyasha," Miroku said, sighing, all the anger evaporating in the cool morning mist. "Growing up with parents makes you think that as adults, they know everything about raising you. But that's a lie, no one magically learns how to be a parent; we're all just trying our best."

"Kagome doesn't have this problem," Inuyasha said bitterly. "She always knows what to do, and how to do it. I know what a mother is supposed to be like, and Kagome is exactly what she should be."

"Lady Kagome was raised by a family in times of peace," Miroku reminded him. "But she makes mistakes and questions herself from time to time too."

"If she does, I've never seen it," Inuyasha spat.

"Then you're not paying close enough attention," Miroku said, a hint of the monk's preaching edging into his tone. "Raising kids is hard. And _your_ little bundle of terror is especially difficult. Sometimes a child needs a firm hand to rein them in. And to teach them about the dangers of the world."

"Hmph. That's what Kagome says anyway."

"She's right. It's natural for a parent to want to protect their child, and to shower them in love and happiness. But we live in a dangerous world, Inuyasha. And part-demons should know there are dangers only they can protect themselves from. I'm sure Lady Kagome thinks about this often. You know that better than anyone."

Inuyasha closed his eyes, biting the inside of his cheek anxiously. "You have no idea how much, Miroku," he said darkly.

* * *

In the end, Miroku gave in and grudgingly shared some of his own hard-won advice on parenting. An hour or so later, Inuyasha plodded down the dirt road, deep in thought, his feet automatically taking the most familiar path home. It was proper morning by the time the little wooden hut came into view and he caught Kagome's familiar scent on the wind. He breathed deeply, forgetting his troubles for a moment, letting the essence of her fill him up. Sometimes his life on this humble patch of earth with the two people he loved most in the world felt like a dream, a dream he might still wake up from at any moment, only to find himself alone with Kagome so far away he could never reach her again. He knew she carried old wounds deep in her heart too; it was a fear and loneliness he understood all too well.

"I'm home," he said, shaking himself of his melancholy and stepping through the reed curtain.

"Yaji!"

He bent down to catch Moroha as she ran full-tilt into his arms and happily nuzzled into his hair.

"Hey kid. Oof, did you grow some more already? You're heavy." Moroha burst into a fit of giggles and clawed her way up the shoulder of his newly fixed haori.

"Moroha! I just fixed that!," Kagome scolded, but it was without her usual fire. "Where have you been, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, somewhere between worry and irritation as she put down her bowl and chopsticks and got to her feet. "You've been gone for over an hour."

"I was just taking a walk," he said, avoiding her gaze. "I didn't mean to take so long."

Kagome frowned, and studied his expression closely.

"What are you hiding?" she asked suspiciously, crossing her arms and leaning in so that he had to take a step back away from the flint in her eyes.

"...Nothin'," he said, but he noticed his voice had gone slightly higher than normal, and he just couldn't look at her directly.

"Inuyasha," she threatened.

"Okay, fine," he grumbled. He'd been down this road far too many times before, and he was not in the mood to fight. "I was asking Miroku about somethin'. Happy?"

"Miroku-sama? What about?" she asked, caught off guard by his reply.

"About raisin' pups," he muttered, more than a little embarrassed at admitting he thought he needed help.

"Pups?" Kagome asked, obviously confused, but he jerked his head at Moroha, who was currently hanging off his shoulder, feet kicking in the air as though her father were some bizarre playground fixture, and to his horror, Kagome burst into laughter.

"It ain't funny," he snarled as she bent over, holding her stomach.

 _"Pups,"_ she wheezed. Inuyasha scowled.

"Shut it," he said.

"Jeez," she said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "You didn't have to hide it. I didn't even know you were that bothered by it."

"Kaa-cha, no cry!" Moroha said, reaching for her mother with wide, concerned eyes.

"Ow!" Inuyasha flinched as a sudden surge of spiritual power went through Moroha's body, and he had to force himself not to let her fall as he quickly handed her over. "Almost got purified," he explained as Kagome hastily accepted the child.

"Moroha!" Kagome chastised. "What have we told you about using _reiki?"_

"Don't hurt Yaji," Moroha mumbled, ashamed. "But Kaa-cha, Moro want no more cry."

Inuyasha could practically smell Kagome melting under the girl's sweet voice, and was satisfied to know he was not the only one the little monster knew how to manipulate.

"Oh, you're such a good girl," Kagome fawned, hugging her daughter tightly and kissing her forehead. "It's okay, Mama isn't sad."

"No sad?"

"And you say I'm the sucker," Inuyasha said under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothin'," Inuyasha said, faking a cough. "Now, where's breakfast, I'm starving."

* * *

"Okay kid, I'm gonna teach you somethin' important."

"No," Moroha said simply, rolling onto her belly on the grass, watching a caterpillar inch its way up a stalk.

"I wasn't askin'," Inuyasha said gruffly, picking his daughter up by the scruff of her _haori_ and sitting her at his feet. Moroha pouted, but mercifully didn't cry.

The wind was perfect as they sat on the hill, overlooking the village. It was a good day, a warm one with clear skies and bright sun. Inuyasha could see the women of the village at the river, doing laundry as children played loudly around them. Kagome wasn't there, he knew, because she'd gone off with Kaede to perform a ritual in the next town over, but he easily picked out Sango, scrubbing hard at the edge of the water. Her twin girls were playing at helping out, while their brother was fast asleep in his mother's lap. He would have smiled at the carefree peace, if he were the type to smile about such things.

"Listen up," he said, crossing his arms at Moroha. "There's somethin' important your old man needs to tell you."

"Moro wanna play."

"After," Inuyasha said, remembering what Miroku told him about remaining firm. "If ya pay attention," he warned, as Moroha spotted a butterfly and reached out for it. Moroha didn't seem particularly threatened, but she nevertheless turned her bright eyes back to him.

"You know what a demon is, don't ya?"

"Yaji one."

"Half of one," he corrected, though he doubted Moroha was old enough to grasp the difference. "Demons are strong, and sometimes they're scary. We can do things humans can't, and we can also hurt 'em if we ain't careful. Some demons think that means they can hurt anythin' weaker than them because they're strong. Only bad demons do that."

"Yaji bad?"

A vein twitched in Inuyasha's temple despite himself. _Do I_ LOOK _evil to ya?_

"No," he said gruffly, unable to snap at those innocent brown eyes.

"Yaji good?"

_Well, I wouldn't say that either..._

"Sure, whatever," he said instead, waving it away as if he could brush aside her interest in the topic. "The point is, there are bad demons out there, and they're always pickin' on people weaker than them. Sometimes the demons come, and then they look at me, and they look at your mom, and they think 'cause we're small, and look like humans, we're weak too." He scoffed at the air at the thought of being underestimated. "Luckily, _Oyaji_ is strong, so he can make the bad demons go away."

Moroha rocked back and forth, clearly restless.

"Kaa-cha good demon?"

Inuyasha spluttered, caught off guard by the misunderstanding, but also at the fact that the girl was smart enough to take the bits of information he'd dumbed down for her and piece it together to come to an assumption of her own.

"Mom's not a demon, kid."

Moroha's eyebrows knitted together in a remarkable likeness to Kagome's.

"But Kaa-cha strong."

Inuyasha felt his mouth tug into a small grin.

"Yeah, she is," he admitted. "But she's a human. A good human." he added without reservations. "'Cause there's bad humans too, and they're sometimes scarier than demons."

He could see Moroha's frustration as she tried to grasp at the point he was needling at. She was frowning, scrunching up her eyes and nose as though she could physically force herself to understand.

"Don't give yourself a headache, kid," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. He leaned forward to poke her forehead, very very lightly. "Just listen, alright? Mom's a human, I'm a demon. So you're different too. There's a word for it, but you're not gonna remember it so it don't matter. You're part of me, and part of Mom. You got spiritual power, that stuff you have to keep away from me, but you also got some of _my_ power. And that's important, 'cause people who are part human and part demon... they get picked on. Bad demons and bad humans will all think you're weak, even though you aren't. D'you get it?"

Moroha blinked twice.

"Nuh-uh."

The vein throbbed again, and Inuyasha couldn't help feeling like an idiot. She was clearly still too young to understand. And she'd never had to experience it yet, what it was like to belong to two worlds and be thoroughly rejected by both.

"Forget it," he muttered. _For now, I'll just have to keep a close eye on her and pray she won't find trouble before I can get there._ "Go on then, go play," he said, sighing. With a gleeful shriek, Moroha scrambled to her feet and down the hill toward the other children. "And don't go too far, or I'll drag ya back home!" he called after her. He watched her go, trying not to feel like he'd failed miserably, even with all of Miroku's advice.

* * *

Kagome was tired, though it was a good sort of tired. The ritual had gone well, but it had taken most of the day to ride there and back. She was stiff and hungry, and more than a little drained from the energy she'd used. She groaned tiredly on the path home, stretching out her shoulder and feeling older than she actually was.

"I'm back," she called, stifling a yawn as she entered the little room.

"Welcome back," Inuyasha said, stirring a pot over the hearth as Moroha cried out happily and ran to clutch her mother's leg.

"Mama!" she said, and Kagome couldn't help grinning at the dropped honorific, a rare treat from Moroha's rather stubborn vocabulary.

"Ohhh, I missed you so much," Kagome said, kneeling and gathering the girl in a tight embrace. "Were you good? Did you listen to Papa?"

"Yes!" she said seriously, even as Inuyasha made a silent but very irritable gesture at his wife to indicate that, no, she hadn't, not really, but nothing _too_ bad had happened at least.

"Please tell me the food's almost ready," Kagome groaned as she carried Moroha over to her father and joined him at the hearth.

"'Bout," he said as she took her shoes off and slumped against his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her waist comfortingly, anchoring her. 

"I'm exhausted," she yawned. Moroha shook herself free of her mother's hold and wandered off to play by the futon in the corner.

"You and me both."

"What did she destroy this time?"

Inuyasha held up a hand to count.

"Two bowls, some poor kid's doll, a few sheets from Sango's laundry, and she startled a horse on the road into droppin' the rider. Took a while to get it to calm down 'nough to catch it, cause she chased it for a bit and I think she may have clawed it. Oh, and she bit Gyokuto."

Kagome winced. "Poor Gyoku, I'll take her some herbs in the morning."

"It's fine, Gyoku bit her back," he shrugged. "Little beast deserved it."

"Inuyasha!"

"What?! She did!" he said defensively. "If she's gonna pick a fight, it's only fair she learns what it feels like on the other side. I figured that was 'nough of a punishment anyway."

Kagome sighed. "Did you at least look at the bite?"

"Yeah, it's pretty shallow. She's probably already healed anyway."

"But poor Gyokuto probably hasn't. I'll make a paste to dull the pain and give it to Sango tomorrow," Kagome said, feeling a slight headache coming on.

"Kaa-cha..."

Kagome was startled at the pull on her sleeve.

"What happened?" she asked warily. Moroha looked upset, and Kagome wondered if she'd been paying attention to the conversation.

"Moro hurt Gyoku?"

"Did the bite hurt you?" Kagome asked simply. Moroha nodded.

"If it hurt for you, it probably hurt a hell of a lot more for Gyoku," Inuyasha said coolly. "Gyoku doesn't have fangs," he said, baring his so she could see the sharp points glinting ominously in the firelight. "You do."

Moroha looked stricken at the thought. "Moro hurt Gyoku more?"

Before her parents could answer, she rushed toward Kagome's chest of herbs and carelessly began tearing through it, tossing plants aside mercilessly.

"MOROHA, NO!" Kagome cried, lunging for the herbs as Inuyasha grabbed the child around the middle and tugged her away.

"The hell are ya doin?!" he snarled, but in answer, Moroha merely held up a single white flower, clutched tightly in her chubby hand.

"Moro say sorry," she said, with an air of stating the obvious.

"Hah?!"

"Moro say sorry," she repeated. "To Gyoku."

"What's that got to do with-" he paused, frowning, staring at the flower in Moroha's hand. Kagome heard the tension in the silence and stopped trying to repair the damage, a realization dawning on her as she recognized the slightly wilted bloom.

Sometimes, when she and Inuyasha had a bad row, he would disappear for a while, leaving her to fume and curse for a few hours before he eventually came back, scowling, and shoved a handful of flowers at her.

"I'm sorry, alright?" he'd grumble, not looking her in the eyes. Sometimes she forgave him. Sometimes she didn't, not right away. But she always took the flowers, because she knew they were hard to find, and that they were far more sincere an apology than his pride allowed him to voice. It was a peace offering, and even though Inuyasha knew it didn't always work, he kept bringing them when they fought. He knew they made her happy.

No one had ever bothered to explain this little ritual to Moroha, and though she must have witnessed it dozens of times, she had never asked or shown any interest in it.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice hushed.

"I know," he said, sounding like he'd been struck with something heavy. The stunned silence would have continued longer if Moroha hadn't decided she'd had enough.

"MORO SAY SORRY!" she insisted, stomping her bare feet on the wooden floor and grabbing hold of her father's sleeve. "Go to Gyoku! GOOO!"

Kagome shook herself back to awareness first. "Okay, okay! We're going," she said, resuming the authority she reserved specifically for what she thought of as her "mom voice." As she pulled her shoes back on and Inuyasha lifted the girl onto his shoulders (Moroha glowering over his ears as though she were a general commanding an army), Kagome took Inuyasha's hand, hoping he could feel the encouragement in the gesture.

"See?" she said brightly. "She does listen to you."

Inuyasha scoffed, but couldn't hide the proud grin on his face.

"Keh! Only when it's somethin' she can use to get outta trouble."

"What's wrong with that?" Kagome said, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. "Good job, old man," she grinned.

Inuyasha made a face.

"That sounds _disgusting_ when you say it!" he groaned. "Now I see why you wanted her to call me Papa instead."

"Good luck trying to change it now." Kagome laughed as Moroha tugged her father's ear sharply, digging her claws into the soft flesh, and shouted impatiently.

"Hurry up, Yaji!"

"Ow! Quit it, kid! That hurts!"

**Author's Note:**

> I've only had Moroha for a few weeks but if anything were to happen to her I would kill everyone in this room and then myse-
> 
> *ahem*
> 
> Most folks probably know this already, but just in case:
> 
> There's a lot of different ways to address people in Japanese, and some are considered more rude than others. In the Inuyasha world, parents and other family members often use a very high honorific to refer to each other, though sometimes they use less polite terms when talking about them to someone else. (An example of this is Miroku; he called his father "Chichi-ue" as a child, but when he grew older and long after his father had died, he used "oyaji" instead, which roughly means "my old man," give or take a few degrees of politeness (or rudeness). The English words "Mama" and "Papa" would not have been used in Feudal Japan because they're loan words from modern Japanese culture, and also considered rather rude/informal/childish forms of address. Interestingly in modern Japan, you often get less respectful honorifics with closer family than you do when talking about your family to someone else, which is kind of the reverse of the old way (though you'd have to have been a pretty rude or at least not-well off person not to call your parents by the respectful honorifics back then). In this story, Moroha has picked up "Kaa-chan" as her mother's title, which is what Inuyasha would be calling her when talking about her as Moroha's "Mom" (except probably with -san), while she's picked up the pretty rude "Oyaji" for Inuyasha himself. That's also his own fault, since he only refers to himself as her "old man" rather than using Kagome's modern terms of affection. Occasionally she'll coax a rare "Mama" from Moroha, but "Papa" is a long lost cause.
> 
> I'm really awkward and bad at replying but I hope you enjoyed this little story. I love hearing your thoughts, even if it's just a "I had fun reading this!"


End file.
